Hard butter used as a substitution for cacao butter is generally classified into a tempering hard butter and a non-tempering hard butter.
The tempering hard butter is made from similar fats having a structure of symmetrical triglyceride closely resembling the cacao butter. Consequently, it can be easily substituted for the cacao butter and can be used by being mixed with the cacao butter at an arbitrary ratio. In addition, the tempering hard butter has a sharp meltability in the mouth, but when a chocolate is produced by using this, it is necessary to carry out a tempering process similarly to a case of the cacao butter.
On the other hand, the non-tempering hard butter resembles the cacao butter in a melting property, but extremely differs in a structure of oil-and-fat. Consequently, it has a low compatibility with the cacao butter. However, it is lower in price than the cacao butter and has a good workability since a complicated tempering work is not needed so that it is widely used in confectionery and bakery industries. The non-tempering hard butter is roughly classified into a lauric acid type and a non-lauric acid type.
Of the non-tempering hard butter, a lauric acid type hard butter is known, the hard butter typically being obtained by hydrogenating and extremely hardening a hard portion (a palm kernel stearin) obtained by fractionating a palm kernel oil. This kind of hard butter has an extremely sharp melting property, but the blend ratio of cacao butter should be decreased as much as possible since it has an extremely bad compatibility with the cacao butter so that chocolates using this become poor in cacao flavor. Further, there is a disadvantage that the hard butter comprises not less than 50 mass % of a lauric acid as the constituent fatty acid so that it becomes extremely poor in the flavor when being hydrolyzed in a poor state of preservation.
Of the non-tempering hard butter, a non-lauric acid type hard butter is also called a trans-acid type hard butter, and the following hard butter is known, the hard butter typically being obtained by isomerizing-hydrogenating a liquid oil such as a palm olein having a low melting point or a soybean oil, and the hard butter being a hard portion or a medium-melting portion obtained by that the isomerized-hydrogenated one is further fractionated as necessary. Although the non-lauric acid type hard butter has a melting property lacking in sharpness in comparison with the lauric acid type hard butter, it has a better compatibility with the cacao butter than the lauric acid type hard butter so that it can be blended relatively more than the lauric acid type hard butter. However, the non-lauric acid type hard butter comprises a good deal of trans-fatty acid so that it has been kept away from being used since it was recognized that the trans-fatty acid harms health.
Therefore, the development of a non-lauric acid type non-tempering hard butter having a low trans-fatty acid content is required.
As the non-lauric acid type non-tempering hard butter containing no trans-fatty acid, a non-tempering hard butter containing SOS type triglyceride and SSO type triglyceride in a predetermined range where St/P is set to a predetermined range (refer to Patent Document 1), and a non-tempering hard butter having contents of SSS and S2U, a mass ratio SUS/SSU, a total content of SU2 and UUU and amass ratio St/P that are respectively set to a predetermined range (refer to Patent Document 2) are known. Although it is recognized that these hard butters have some efficacy in meltability in the mouth and snap characteristics, they are not necessarily satisfactory for processing suitability in case of using it as a coating chocolate, and an appearance of a coated product.